Background and motivation African countries face formidable public health challenges, including declining or stagnating life expectancy at birth, a high burden of communicable diseases such as HIV&AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis; an increasing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and injuries, resource constraints, sub-optimal health system performance and low investment in public health research. Public health functions are the silent yet critical element of a comprehensive approach to disease prevention, health promotion and protection, and include mechanisms that support intersectoral action to address the social determinants of health. The active participation of a non-governmental public health association (PHA) in health policy debates is critical to ensure sufficient attention is paid to healthy public health policy, that health inequities are addressed and that global health targets are met. However, these PHAs are often small fledgling organisations that lack funding and capacity to influence national health policy debates. The Public Health Association of South Africa (PHASA) will host a workshop to debate and discuss how to increase the capacity and ability of national PHAs to take a more active role in health policy processes and in influencing public health policies. Attendees: Open to all delegates at the Conference. Target audience: Policymakers, public health professionals, national public health associations. Hosted by: Public Health Association of South Africa (PHASA)